Scott Belskyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/scott-belsky
en-usFri, 09 Dec 2016 12:10:22 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 12:10:22 -0500The latest news on Scott Belsky from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/startup-investor-scott-belsky-five-predictions-2016-10Startup investor Scott Belsky shares five big predictions for the future of technologyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/startup-investor-scott-belsky-five-predictions-2016-10
Sat, 29 Oct 2016 16:25:06 -0400Scott Belsky, Benchmark
<p id="89ed"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58150548362ca41c008b5c3f-620/scott-belsky-1.jpg" alt="Scott Belsky" data-mce-source="TransmitNOW events via flickr " data-link="http://www.flickr.com/photos/transmitnow/5452429074/" /></p><p>Every now and then, it&rsquo;s a fun and healthy challenge to think distantly. Sure, we already expect self-driving cars, wearable hardware, a connected home, and augmented reality. But where does the foreseeable future take us next? I&rsquo;m talking more Black Mirror than investor thesis. What new problems will we be struggling with? What will kill us? What will connect us? While solutions change, some questions will always remain. If only to stimulate discussion among friends, here are a few forecasts on my mind these days:</p>
<ol>
<li id="6fc0"><strong>Social media will become passive.</strong></li>
<li id="1958"><strong>Our (augmented) reality will be a land grab, and always be under attack from brands.</strong></li>
<li id="7b4c"><strong>Interfaces will compete with the technology underneath.</strong></li>
<li id="5408"><strong>Autonomous vehicles in cities will become a public utility.</strong></li>
<li id="1b4f"><strong>We will transcend &ldquo;tragedy of the commons&rdquo; with technology that aligns self-interests with community benefits.</strong></li>
</ol>
<p id="4490">Allow me to explain, as well as share some implications for each:</p>
<h4 id="3d45"><strong>(1) Social media will become&nbsp;passive.</strong></h4>
<p id="f1fd">The concept of actively &ldquo;posting&rdquo; or &ldquo;sharing&rdquo; will be frowned upon and entirely replaced by a passive stream of your life&rsquo;s experiences, whereabouts, and media consumption. Imagine a 24 hour channel of you that is authentic, aways live (or automatically programmed), and always accessible to your friends (or if you&rsquo;re born in the age of transparency (post year 2000), accessible to anyone). Any effort to actively post something will be seen as &ldquo;manual editing&rdquo; and will be perceived negatively unless it is an artistic statement. Quality will be community and algorithmically-determined, surfacing the highlights of your experience in a way that is automatic and thus deemed more authentic. Implications?</p>
<ul>
<li id="1bcc">So many social products and new forms of advertising will emerge to accommodate <strong><em>the era of passive social</em></strong>. Viral growth of new products and media will happen more naturally based on how many people are tuning into you. Simply, whatever you&rsquo;re doing or consuming is what other people will discover.</li>
<li id="7759">Typical forms of paid user acquisition will become obsolete, replaced by product placement and &ldquo;experience placement.&rdquo; The prices you pay for products and services in your life will be offset by the exposure you bring. The bigger your network (and the better your &ldquo;CFV&rdquo; (Conversion From Viewers, a measure of how actionable your content is for those that follow you), the less your life will cost!</li>
<li id="d2f6">I am struck by the idea of trusting automation over what someone does manually. It&rsquo;s the evolution of how we are drawn to inferior photos on Snapchat in a more primal way than carefully posed and edited photos on Instagram. <em>The objectivity of algorithms over the subjectivity of human tendencies may cause us to &ldquo;trust&rdquo; algorithms more.</em> We value an unedited photo and &ldquo;collective intelligence&rdquo; for the same reasons &mdash; they make us less paranoid that we&rsquo;re being lied to (and thus help us believe and relate). With the loss of &ldquo;manual editing,&rdquo; social media will become a more effective form of empathy and truth.</li>
<li id="a033">Given the passivity of social networks, their relevance will rely on context. Social networks will pop into and out of our life depending on where we are, what we&rsquo;re doing, and what we want. Visiting Spain for Christmas? Expect to have &ldquo;contextual ephemeral social networks&rdquo; (sorry) that enable you to navigate, connect and plan activities with other friends in Spain during the week you are there. When the trip ends, the network will disappear.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="5668"><strong>(2) Our (augmented) reality will be a land grab, and always be under attack from&nbsp;brands.</strong></h4>
<p id="7f88">Personally, I&rsquo;m more bullish about augmented reality than virtual reality. The augmented layer opens up a ton of exciting (and horrifying) ways for brands, friends, governments, and artists to get in your line of sight based on where you are and when you&rsquo;re there. Quite quickly, I see it getting out of hand. While the physical world has practical limitations that keep billboards at bay, the augmented world won&rsquo;t. To get a feel for how bad this could be, <a href="https://vimeo.com/166807261" rel="nofollow" data-href="https://vimeo.com/166807261">check out this video</a>. Implications?</p>
<ul>
<li id="2f7d">Perhaps &ldquo;ad blockers&rdquo; will be the most important apps in the era of augmented (and virtual) reality? Whatever platform and device you use to augment your reality, advertising is the most likely business model. If the increasing number of paid search results in a typical Google search today is any indication, your augmented reality will constantly be under siege. To fight it, you&rsquo;ll install intelligent or crowd-sourced filtering software that will override unwelcome parts of your augmented reality experience.</li>
<li id="6ad3">Perhaps the major platforms for augmented reality will designate certain zones as commercial or non-commercial? Zoning has worked well enough for governments. I can see your home &mdash; and all other private property &mdash; being designated as &ldquo;non-commercial,&rdquo; and thus off-limits to advertising. If Snapchat&rsquo;s filter submission and approval system is any indication, augmented reality will be an unprecedented land grab akin to the domain-name craze in the nineties.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="9760"><strong>(3) Interfaces will compete with the technology underneath.</strong></h4>
<p id="0f35">A few years ago I <a href="https://medium.com/positiveslope/the-interface-layer-when-design-commoditizes-tech-e7017872173a#.smzp9jlld" data-href="https://medium.com/positiveslope/the-interface-layer-when-design-commoditizes-tech-e7017872173a#.smzp9jlld">shared my excitement for the &ldquo;interface layer: where design commoditizes tech,&rdquo;</a> and how superior interfaces will aggregate multiple services underneath. In the future, we will want fewer interfaces in our lives &mdash; and these interfaces will integrate all sorts of utilities into a simple flow. Examples?</p>
<ul>
<li id="3f17">Modern <strong>interfaces will revolutionize how we plan our day</strong> by aggregating the disparate services we wish to schedule, from rides and food to babysitters, into a single interface. The underlying providers of such services will compete for presence in the interface, based on price and revenue share with the interface itself.</li>
<li id="0ed0">The <strong>interfaces we use at work will become customizable</strong>. People will be able to choose and customize the &ldquo;skin&rdquo; for the tools they use in the enterprise. Consumerization of enterprise technology will bring us to a place where productivity and employee morale is meaningfully higher when interfaces are user-friendly and custom.</li>
<li id="c63b">Interfaces will <strong>change the way we get customer service</strong> from companies and governments, negating the need to interact directly with cable companies, utilities, or government websites. The interface companies will monetize by proactively suggesting optimizations to your plans (saving you money) &mdash; or offering premium ways of saving time. These modern interfaces will empower customers and citizens by stripping away the benefits of friction enjoyed by providers (companies and governments rely on how damn difficult it is for us to do certain things!).</li>
<li id="7d86">And for the left-field prediction, <strong>an entirely new mobile operating system will emerge that is location-centric rather than app-centric</strong>. In a modern world where we want fewer interfaces with interconnected functionality, it is time to rethink mobile. <span name="anon_864a6a847fc3" data-creator-ids="anon">Functionality should be visible and then hidden based on where and when we are, rather than what apps we installed.</span> In fact, apps shouldn&rsquo;t exist. Whatever we need (whether we know it or not) should be at our fingertips, and (no surprise) our voice command should summon anything we want.</li>
</ul>
<p id="c4dc"><strong><em>The biggest implication of the emerging interface layer is ruthless competition to be the default</em></strong>. The utility-based providers underneath these interfaces will be pressed on margins and will compete to be the default provider in the interfaces we use on a daily basis. To survive, the providers will focus more on optimizing the cost-efficiency of their services rather than spending money building their brand and relationships with customers.</p>
<h4 id="ca4f"><strong>(4) Autonomous vehicles in cities will become a public&nbsp;utility.</strong></h4>
<p id="bbc1">When (not if) all transportation within a city&rsquo;s limits becomes automated and increasingly regulated, cities will rethink infrastructure and public transportation. Some cities<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/3/13147680/uber-new-jersey-free-ride-parking-lot-train-commute" rel="nofollow" data-href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/3/13147680/uber-new-jersey-free-ride-parking-lot-train-commute">already see Uber as a solution</a> to &ldquo;last mile&rdquo; transportation quandaries. Perhaps planning and scheduling software for public transportation becomes more important than the commoditized technology in the vehicles themselves. Perhaps transportation will join the ranks of water and electricity? Implications?</p>
<ul>
<li id="b1f2">A whole series of questions emerge: Will on-demand and autonomous transportation data become a public asset? At what point will mass transit adopt autonomous vehicles and become completely automated? Will the future of mass transit be operated by governments or private companies? Will companies that create technology to plan and schedule mass transit for government (like <a href="https://www.remix.com/" rel="nofollow" data-href="https://www.remix.com">Remix Software</a>) commoditize the tech that performs the transportation? As an Uber investor, i&rsquo;m mixed about this, but I believe Uber&rsquo;s dataset alongside its advances in autonomous technology will be its moat.</li>
<li id="8cda">On the topic of autonomous vehicles, I was thinking the other day about the consequences of preset routes and what would happen when vehicles &ldquo;disobey.&rdquo; Call it a CGW &mdash; &ldquo;car gone wild&rdquo; &mdash; when a vehicle, with or without passengers onboard, begins to roam either out of bounds or off the set schedule or route (attention Black Mirror writers!). Perhaps the vehicle was hacked? Or perhaps conflicting instructions around traffic conditions or passenger destinations, coupled with artificial intelligence, take the vehicle on an unexpected course. Ultimately, government safety officers must be equipped to control anything that runs automatically.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="a509"><strong>(5) We will transcend &ldquo;tragedy of the commons&rdquo; with technology that aligns self-interests with community benefits.</strong></h4>
<p id="9e5c">The &ldquo;tragedy of the commons&rdquo; is the unfortunate human tendency to take advantage of shared-resources out of self-interest, thus depleting the benefits everyone could enjoy through collective action. Back in the day, farmers would take their livestock and selfishly deplete the town commons before returning to their own lands (which they would sustain thoughtfully). If everyone just agreed to graze the commons sparingly, it would last and benefit everyone. But self-interests obstruct the common good. People who abuse insurance spike prices for the rest of us. People who cheat taxes cause the rest of us to pay more. Through increased transparency, networks, and artificial intelligence, technology will enable us to collectively regulate and align our interests. Implications?</p>
<ul>
<li id="0c16">Any product or service that bakes in a cost for &ldquo;bad actors&rdquo; can be transformed. The way we buy insurance, get mortgages, and pay taxes may change once we can unbundle the costs and align our interests with larger groups of likeminded people. Would you pledge to eat healthier to lower your health insurance premiums? Would you pledge to drive safely and disclose the speed of your driving for cheaper insurance? As technology permeates our everyday actions, you&rsquo;ll have the option of surrendering a degree of self-interest for lower prices.</li>
<li id="3eda">Social networks will reduce the frequency of abuse and trolling through new tools powered by human curation and artificial intelligence that diminish the reach of bad actors. If you troll or fail to participate in the collective efforts to protect the platform, your voice will be heard less. To be anonymous and still be a steward of the medium is the future of freedom of speech.</li>
<li id="408d">Your reputation will become portable, recognized and rewarded beyond the brands and governments from whom you earned it. If you have a history of over-using customer service or being an outlier on the cost curve, you may not be eligible for better pricing.</li>
<li id="cbd6">Collective bargaining networks will become the default source for certain insurance and financial products. Bartering and &ldquo;favor based&rdquo; economies will become more mainstream as equality can be tracked.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="4a8e"><strong>What to do with forecasts?</strong></h4>
<p id="ded9">Forecasts for the future are not an investment thesis. The future won&rsquo;t happen until the present is ready for it. One of the things I&rsquo;ve learned from the partners at Benchmark is just how important it is to invest with a tremendous insight into the present. But for a seed investor, product leader, or entrepreneur, forecasts for the future add a new lens to pattern recognition. Aside from what I look for in a founder, team, and product, I try to determine whether the future is a headwind or a tailwind for a company. Is the team attempting to defy a likely outcome or make it happen in a better way?</p>
<p id="8814">If nothing more, considering the future exercises our imagination and sparks conversation and debate with people you can learn from. Bring it.&nbsp;;-)</p>
<p><strong><em>Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, and investor. Scott co-founded <a href="http://www.behance.com/" target="_blank">Behance</a> in 2006, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. He's now a venture partner at Benchmark Capital.</em></strong></p>
<p><em>This post originally appeared on Medium, and is reprinted with the author's permission.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/startup-investor-scott-belsky-five-predictions-2016-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-boeing-747-front-hump-2016-11">Here's why Boeing 747s have a giant hump in the front</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/q-raises-775000-to-make-cleaning-an-office-easy-to-schedule-and-manage-2014-8Q Raises $775,000 From Big-Time Angel Investors To Become A Godsend For Office Managers Everywherehttp://www.businessinsider.com/q-raises-775000-to-make-cleaning-an-office-easy-to-schedule-and-manage-2014-8
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 10:05:00 -0400Alyson Shontell
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/53e8c113eab8ea4729cb91bc-1200-924/q-9.jpg" border="0" alt="Q"></p><p>When your day at the office is ending, it's just beginning for another set of workers: the cleaning staff.</p>
<p>Cleaning staffs are often hired by buildings or companies through legacy agreements. There isn't some sort of app to help speed up the scheduling, management, or payment process between the cleaners and the offices who book them.</p>
<p>Often, companies have to hire employees dedicated to office management to oversee the process; they also handle day-to-day issues such as changing lights, fixing Internet problems, and stocking fridges.</p>
<p><a href="https://managedbyq.com/">Q</a> (named after the Star Trek character and James Bond's Q Branch) is a software and management startup that wants to make it easier for companies to work with cleaning services and other service providers on a routine basis. Its mobile platform allows office managers to book cleanings, leave notes for the cleaning staff, assign tasks to be completed, and pay for the service all in one place. <span>Q buys hours in bulk from cleaning services in the NYC area, then turns around and sells them to offices at a slightly higher price, for $25 an hour. </span></p>
<p>When a <a href="http://www.managedbyq.com">cleaning is booked through Q</a>, the workers clock in on a Q-provided iPad in the office. They can check off what they've done (vacuumed floors, cleaned desks, etc) so the office manager can see. Offices are required to book at least 4 hours worth of cleanings per week on the platform.&nbsp;<span>Q also has a network of local service providers (electricians, exterminators, etc) that can be booked &nbsp;and payed for through its mobile app.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Founded by Daniel Teran and Saman Rahmanian, Q launched this past April with 15 customers. The technology is used by companies like Uber, Elite Daily, and Flatiron Health, and Q estimates it will be used by over 100 offices by the end of this summer.</p>
<p><span>"Right now, n</span><span>o [office manager] really knows what they’re paying for," Teran says of hiring a cleaning service. &nbsp;"There's a paper list of things people <em>say</em> they’re going to do...We're creating an operating system for offices, providing the products, services and technology to make it easy to run an office."</span></p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53e8c611ecad045c1535c064-1200-924/q-10.jpg" border="0" alt="q">Already, Q's looking at an annual run rate of more than $1 million. It recently raised a $775,000 seed round from notable angel investors including Behance co-founder Scott Belsky, College Humor founders Ricky Van Veen and Josh Abramson, Barkbox co-founder&nbsp;Henrik Werdelin,&nbsp;Max Burger and&nbsp;Jay Livingston. Path founder Dave Morin and early Facebooker Kevin Colleran also invested through their fund, Slow Ventures, as well as&nbsp;<span>Panarea Captial's&nbsp;<span>Len Blavatink and Alex Zubillaga.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Teran <span>was the first employee at another New York City-based startup, Artsicle. He&nbsp;</span>a</span></span>nd Rahmanian&nbsp;first m<span><span>et at Prehype, a design and incubation shop that builds innovative new ideas for businesses. The pair got the idea for Q when they noticed how terrible communication was between service providers and their apartment buildings. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>"I&nbsp;<span>moved into a condo and we had really terrible service in the building," says Teran. "I started thinking about what building things in maintenance looks like. So we came up with the idea for an iOS dashboard."</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><img class="float_left" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/53e8c9b969beddda48a02e99-1200-800/g-13.jpg" border="0" alt="q">"We start talking about what the problems were and communication problems with maintenance workers," </span></span></span>Rahmanian&nbsp;agre<span><span><span>es. "We started off with an iPad in the hallway of the condo, that was our initial product. Then we had interest from office managers. So we set up a bunch of meetings switched from a residential product to office buildings." </span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myclean-2013-7">MyClean</a> is a similar mobile platform for booking residential cleanings in New York, but there didn't seem to be similar widely-used product for local businesses. So&nbsp;</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Teran an</span>d Rahmanian&nbsp;m<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">et with 30 local cleaning services to gauge interest and onboarded some of them to Q. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><span><span>Q currently has 14 employees including a former Apple employee who leads its tech operations. The team is split between New York and Buenos Aires. </span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>Eventually, Q wants to expand beyond cleanings to run more like one of its customers — Uber — with on-demand services for anything offices need.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>Scott Belsky, an early investor in Uber, sees that promise in Q. "I love&nbsp;<span>businesses that replace the pipes and upgrade the user experience for some aspect of everyday living —&nbsp;</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">I &nbsp;call these 'interface layer' businesses," Belsky told Business Insider via email. "</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Uber did this for transportation. Shyp [another investment] is doing it for shipping. And Q is doing it for office/space management."</span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>Belsky says that Q might look like just a cleaning service platform right now, but it has the potential to become a lot more than that. </span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>"I was impressed by the potential for customers to rely on Q for other services such as ordering more office/cleaning supplies, handymen, etc.," he says. "The interface of Q has the potential to revolutionize many industries that operate underneath."</span></span></span></span></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/q-raises-775000-to-make-cleaning-an-office-easy-to-schedule-and-manage-2014-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/universal-marketplace-a-threat-to-amazon-2012-11This Idea About A Universal Marketplace Of The Future Can Bury Amazonhttp://www.businessinsider.com/universal-marketplace-a-threat-to-amazon-2012-11
Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:35:05 -0500Robert Libetti
<p>Imagine if you can buy anything you see on <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/instagram">Instagram</a>, Pinterest or anywhere on the web with just one click.</p>
<p><a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/scott-belsky">Scott Belsky</a>, founder of <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/behance">Behance</a>, a photo sharing and promotion startup for artists and visual creatives, says that the visual web should become a universal store:</p>
<p>"Thinking years ahead, what if there is no such thing as a market place. What if, in fact, market place is not a destination but a given. Anywhere you see anything visual, the assumption you will have is that you can buy it online."</p>
<p>Belsky elaborated on the idea that may make Amazon obsolete in a panel on the visual web at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/ignition-2012">our IGNITION conference this week</a>.</p>
<p>Watch an excerpt from the panel below.</p>
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<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4fb6a66669bedde83d000001-400-300/scott-belsky.jpg" border="0" alt="Scott Belsky" width="400" height="300" /></p><p><em>This article originally <a href="http://www.openforum.com/articles/9-ways-to-create-an-innovation-culture">appeared on American Express Open Forum</a></em>.</p>
<p>Excellent teams don't just come together by accident. It takes a lot of hard work to create synergy.</p>
<p>This was a theme at the recent <a href="http://the99percent.com/conference/coverage?url=conference-2012">Behance 99% conference on creativity</a> in New York City, where innovative minds like Nest Founder <a href="http://www.nest.com/about/">Tony Fadell</a> and Warby Parker CEO <a href="http://www.warbyparker.com/meet-the-founders">Neil Blumenthal</a> spoke about how to come up with &mdash; and act upon &mdash; big ideas.</p>
<p>The conference was hosted by <a href="http://www.behance.net/about">Behance Network</a>, which is an online platform devoted to showcasing creative work. (The<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/creative-discovery-company-behance-raises-65-million-from-jeff-bezos-union-square-ventures-and-others-2012-5"> company also just raised $6.5 million</a> from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/jeff-bezos" class="hidden_link">Jeff Bezos</a> and other investors.) Founder and CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scott-belsky-wall-street-to-startup-2010-11">Scott Belsky</a> held a workshop on how to create effective teams, based on his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Making-Ideas-Happen-Overcoming-Obstacles/dp/159184312X">Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming The Obstacles Between Vision &amp; Reality</a>.</p>
<p>Here are the highlights:</p>
<p><strong>Understand the lifecycle of ideas</strong><br /> When a new idea strikes, energy and excitement is extremely high. But when the hard work really begins, excitement drops. This is called the "Project Plateau."</p>
<p>"It's the doldrums of project management," Belsky says. "We hate that place so we try to escape it. There are more half-written novels than there are novels."&nbsp;</p>
<p>There's the gravitational force of operations &mdash; which pulls you away from what's important to what's urgent. The key is making time for both.</p>
<p><strong>Accountability is key</strong>,<strong> and this begins with leadership</strong><br />Effective teams hold each member accountable for their contributions. For this to happen, there must be a clear leader who knows each person's strengths.</p>
<p>"People seldom leave jobs for more money," says Belsky. "It&rsquo;s because they don&rsquo;t feel fully utilized. This tracks back to a leadership problem. ... There are too many disorganized and isolated networks."</p>
<p>Part of accountability involves keeping people honest. "We often say we want feedback," says Belsky, "but we don't seek it."</p>
<p><strong>Workflow needs to be forward-thinking, not just reactionary</strong> <br /> If you simply repond to what's urgent, that's a reactionary way of thinking and working. It may get you through the day, but it doesn't lay the groundwork for long-term innovation. Belsky offers a formula: <br /> <br /> Making ideas happen = creativity/ideas + organization and execution + communal forces + leadership capability<br /> <br /> When it comes to organization and execution, since there's often an endless stream of reactionary workflow, there's a lost "forced space for deep thinking."</p>
<p>Good leaders will create space for this by "creating windows of non-stimulation." During this time, leaders will read reports, data, etc. &mdash; but not react to anything; just process it. <br /> <br /><strong> Organization will make or break ideas</strong> <br /> "Spend energy on staying organized," says Belsky, who offers up another formula: <br /> <br /> Creativity x Organization = Impact <br /> <br /> Zero organization around ideas = zero impact<br /> <br /> 5 (ideas) x 0 (organization) = 0 (impact)<br />100 (ideas) x 0 (organization) = 0 (impact)<br /> 50 (ideas) x 2 (organization) = 100 (impact)<br /> <br /> Belsky points out that the company with the best supply chain management is also considered one of the world's most creative (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/apple" class="hidden_link">Apple</a>). "Organize with a bias to action," he says. <br /> <br /> In order to stay organized, create an action method, which includes action steps and backburner items (which are consistently revisited at a designated time each week).<br /> <br /> <strong>Run effective meetings</strong> <br />Meetings can also make or break an organization. Long, ineffective discussions will waste precious time and energy &mdash; not to mention break up the workday.</p>
<p>Belsky suggests looking at companies like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google" class="hidden_link">Google</a>, which hold standing meetings. People only discuss what needs to be discussed, and everyone walks out with "actionable steps."</p>
<p><strong>Surround yourself with progress, and plan for more</strong> <br />Effective teams surround themselves with testaments to progress &mdash; such as full calendars or checked-off to-do lists. "Progress begets progress," he says.</p>
<p>Successful people celebrate small wins every day and know how to prioritize projects. They also know how to divide up their time. "Pretend you have an energy line," Belsky says, "which runs from low to extreme." Work on your toughest, most important assignments when you're at your peak energy level. Save the more monotonous work for when your energy levels are lower.</p>
<p><strong>Know everyone's strengths, and create a diverse team</strong> <br />There are three different types of workers, says Belsky &mdash; dreamers, doers and incrementalists. All bring valuable skills, but are exponentially more effective when working together. "You need people with an opposite or different tendency to round you out," he says.</p>
<p>There should also be a culture of open innovation. "Share ideas liberally," he says. "Entrepreneurs share ideas quickly and get them out there. They all say the benefits outweigh the cost [of someone potentially stealing their idea]. They believe they'll get more refinement, more accountability and potential collaborators. They're willing to make that tradeoff."</p>
<p><strong>Create a culture of innovation</strong><br />Too many companies don't allow for true innovation. They punish risk-takers who don't meet expectations. But to become a risk-taker &mdash; and truly innovate &mdash; is to also accept that there will be many failures along the way.&nbsp; <br /> <br /> "So much of the latest research around innovation is rapid prototyping," says Belsky. "The third time you try, you&rsquo;ve figured it out." Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. <br /> <br /> <strong>Stay passionate and focused</strong> <br /> "Fight your way through breakthroughs," says Belsky. "Apathy screws over clients and customers. <br /> Fight apathy ruthlessly. And don&rsquo;t become burdened by consensus. ... Nothing extraordinary is ever achieved through ordinary means."</p>
<h3>NOW READ: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tory-burch-ambition-is-not-a-four-letter-word-2012-5">Tory Burch: 'Ambition Is Not A Four-Letter Word And Women Have To Embrace That' &gt;</a></h3><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scott-belskys-tips-on-creating-effective-teams-2012-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>